Let's spice up these bland elections

John Vincent

Friday

May 6, 2016 at 8:23 AM

This week we had elections in Templeton and Win­chendon that both had contested races for the Board of Selectmen. So that’s pretty exciting stuff for local politics, especially in towns that have had some "financial difficulties" in the past few years.

This week we had elections in Templeton and Win­chendon that both had contested races for the Board of Selectmen. So that’s pretty exciting stuff for local politics, especially in towns that have had some “financial difficulties” in the past few years.

But, you know, Templeton already has Robert Markel as its interim town administrator, and he seems to have righted the ship. Winchendon hired new Town Manager Keith Hickey late last year, and he’s now working on getting everything all straightened out there ... so what’s the point of voting, really?

I drove by Narragansett High School on my way to an appointment and saw the bright red-and-white signs that said, “Vote today.” But I had left with just about enough time to get to where I was going so I couldn’t stop or I’d be late.

Later on, I somehow also didn’t stop to vote.

I have to say, I didn’t really know who to vote for anyway. Douglas Morrison was an incumbent selectman, Jeffrey Bennett and Julie Farrell were former selectmen, John Caplis was the veterans service officer in town, and I had no great insight on any of them, even though I’d read our candidates forum story by reporter Tara Vocino and saw two of them on Templeton Community Television from that night – I may have dozed off while watching.

It just wasn’t that compelling of an election.

The school vote is over. The new school is going where the Templeton Center School is and that’s that – even if I think it’ll be too big for the site, with no room to play, and too tall (three stories) with small children going up and down flights of stairs all the time.

They just had a meeting on that, and everyone with an opinion similar to mine was told that they should have said something about that at a prior meeting, before it was all finalized.

But what good would that have done?

They’d already tried the Fernald School site, they tried the MBW salvage site, and everyone told us the clock was ticking on the state aid, so we all knew once they picked this site that that was it.

No use debating it. No use voting in someone who disagrees after the fact.

Everyone likes the idea of the school going in there anyway. They have to, because that’s what they’re going to get, so they might as well get used to it.

I actually think it’s going to work out great. Or at least, as long as I say that I can stop thinking about the negatives. Ac­centuate the positive. That’s what I always say ... when I’m not complaining.

Maybe we could have gotten more voter participation if we spiced things up a little.

Obviously, voting on the selectmen is important ... at least important enough for about 700 people to vote in Templeton and 454 in Winchendon. Now, Templeton has 8,013 residents and Winchendon has 10,300, according to the last census, but a lot of those are kids and people who aren’t very interested in voting.

I know it, it’s hard to believe, but they’re out there.

I mean, this is America, and we all treasure our rights — to bear arms, or have a free press or to vote.

But the voting one is not really inspiring a lot of participation these days.

So, I’m thinking a couple of extra votes on potentially more interesting topics could be the trick to draw people in.

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Do you like jalapeno ice cream? Do you like Murdock Farm or Lickety Splitz better? Do you prefer Kitchen Garden or Templeton Ice Cream Barn? If you had your choice of Birthday Cake or Cake Batter ice cream, which would you choose?

You see, I’m thinking this could be a bit more interesting.

You could vote on which roads were going to be resurfaced this year, whether or not there’s going to be a one-way traffic pattern on South and Wellington roads, or what to call the new park at Ingleside ... Ingleside Park or Birthday Cake Ice Cream Park?

And just to make sure we really ramp up participation, let’s vote to give some advice to Tom Brady ... should he accept the four-game Deflategate suspension or take it all the way to the Supreme Court?

Of course, we just held the elections, so I know we’re not going to be able to weigh in on this one anytime soon, so I’ll just get my vote in now: Tom, take the four-game suspension and end this long, drawn-out hullabaloo, and apologize for messing with the air in the footballs and move on.

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